Books

My Second Winter

Even though some of these new poems were written in the
same calendar year, they are part of what I metaphorically speak
of as my "Second Winter"--sick again, another round of
treatment, cold weather. My second "Watermelon Poem" speaks to
how heartsick I felt and, in retrospect, was what I believe to be
my intense longing for a death I did not care to spend months or
possibly years waiting for:

The Second Winter

December 19, 1992

Summer came again

And just as quickly went.

The woolen socks

are back...

To stay

I think.

The watermelon shoes

Are put away

On a shelf I can

No longer reach.

Summer,

however brief,

May come again

This year.

But the shoes,

Too little worn

To Have Such

Saging soles,

Will walk about

No more.

But I am not, by nature, a gloomy or pessimistic person and
within a few days, another poem came called, "A Glimmer of
Hope":